by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College tuned up for Friday’s Region VI playoffs with a 16-hit attack that included seven extra base hits in an 11-6 win over Longview Tuesday.
The win was the 38th of the season for the Blue Devils (38-18), who will host Garden City Friday at 3 p.m. in the first game of a best-of-three series. The second game will be played Saturday at 1 p.m. with a third game if necessary Sunday at 1 p.m. At stake will be a berth in the 8-team super-regional to be played next week in Wichita’s Dumont Stadium.
Garden City (33-22) finished fifth in the Jayhawk West with an 18-14 record while KCKCC tied with Neosho County for third in the Jayhawk East at 24-12. However, Neosho earned the No. 3 seed by virtue of a better record against East champion Cowley.
Chase Redick led the way against Longview. Just a single short of hitting for the cycle, the sophomore from SM North drove in five runs with a double, triple and home run. Brigham Mooney also tripled and Rorey Combs, Josh Schumacher and Easton Fortuna doubled. Schumacher joined Redick with three hits; Mooney and Combs had two apiece.
It was Longview, however, that jumped in front 5-2 before the Blue Devils launched the extra base barrage with five runs in the fifth and four in the sixth.
The fifth inning rally started with two out. A single by Tyler Pittman, an error and a walk loaded the bases to set the stage for back-to-back 2-run doubles by Fortuna and Redick. A Schumacher single and a throwing error made it 7-5. The four runs in the sixth also came with two out. After a one-out triple by Mooney, Alex Phillips drove in his 68th run of the season, Combs doubled in a run, Fortuna singled and Redick added the final two runs with a triple.
Redick also started the Blue Devil scoring with his eighth home run of the season leading off the second while Mooney’s bunt single led to a run in the third that gave KCKCC a short-lived 2-1 lead.
The Blue Devils used six pitchers. Max Storch pitched into the fourth when he was kayoed by a bases-loaded triple by Daniel Gibbons. Cameron Bednar got the win despite giving up four hits in 1 1/3 innings before Cole Gacke and Colton Kenagy each pitched a hitless inning. Allan Brown was touched for two hits and a run in the eighth before Julian Rivera closed out the win.